This past Monday I submitted to Joseph Towalski, the
editor of The Catholic Spirit,
a brief "Op-Ed" on what can best be described as a conspiracy to
secure, through the exploitation of the prevailing clamor for health
care reform, the federal funding of abortion as a settled function of
our government together with the abolition of all existing restrictions
on abortion. For those of you who do not subscribe to our archdiocesan
newspaper I am taking the liberty of reprinting the Op-Ed here,
assuming (not recklessly, I hope) that in so doing I will not be
"jumping the gun " on The Spirit.

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Operation Hijack

It's "All Systems Go!"
for Operation Hijack-an effort to channel the resources of our federal
government into providing subsidies for abortion (and, farther down the
road, most likely for euthanasia, too). The strategy is to insert
wording that is intentionally ambiguous into the draft legislation for
health care reform, so that when the final resolution of differences
between the House and Senate versions is achieved and the final vote is
taken, the Executive branch of the government will be free to interpret
the legislation in such a way as to allow the imposing of mandated
subsidies from the federal treasury for the provision of abortion
"services", with the co-opting of private health care insurers into the
program and the coercing of health care providers, both individual and
institutional, into complicity in the provision of abortion, even
should such provision involve the violation of conscience.To catch a glimpse into
the real intent of some of those who are charged with drafting
legislation for health care reform one could do no better than to
consider a recent session (held on July the ninth) of a Senate
committee that is crucially important in the planned restructuring of
our nation's health care system, the Senate Committee for Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions (known by its acronym as The HELP
Committee). Chaired by Maryland's Democratic Senator Barbara
Mikulski, the committee met to hear proposals from its members for
changes in the draft legislation's wording. Senator Orrin Hatch,
Republican of Utah, asked a searching question "Madame Chairman,
would you be willing to put some language in [into the bill] that says
'Not including abortion services'?" Senator Mikulski replied:
"No, I would not be willing to do that at this time." At a
subsequent session (on July the thirteenth) Senator Hatch offered a
carefully worded amendment that would remove existing ambiguity and
would explicitly
prohibit federal funding of abortion except in the case of rape,
incest, or imminent threat to the life of the mother. Senator Hatch's
proposed amendment was defeated in committee by majority vote. That's the way things
stand today, which is why the only way to stop this planned hijacking
of health care reform in the interests of the Culture of Death is for
pro-Life citizens across the board to let their Senators and
Representatives know, by telephone, FAX, e-mail or traditional written
letter (or even, whenever possible, by "button-holing" said
representatives face to face) just how much they, as voters, vigorously
oppose the allocation of federal tax dollars to the murder of the
helpless unborn. All the more importunate
today is Edmund Burke's much cited admonition: "All that is required
for the triumph of evil is that the good do nothing." Now is the time
for pro-Life citizens to make their voices heard!

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Many economists think that the estimates of the price- tag
for measures now being considered for the reform of health care are way
too low. The experience of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in its
effort to provide universal coverage for its citizens is
instructive. May I quote from an editorial (July 28th) in
the Wall Street Journal.
"After only
three years, the universal healthcare experiment in Massachusetts is
already breaking that state's budget, and its own version of MedPAC is
now recommending radical changes, including a "global" health-care
budget. This means that state bureaucrats will decide what is the
'right' amount to spend on medicine, and doctors and hospitals will be
given some portion of the total and told to make it work for
patients. This is supposed to be a kind of Occam's
Scalpel, forcing providers to cut unnecessary treatments.
But under a global budget, payments are likely to be lower than
economic costs, squeezing
out some beneficial treatments.